Leyton Town Hall and Leyton Library
Historic site · Leyton, England
Leyton Town Hall, at 1A Adelaide Road, E10 5NN, was built in 1895 to designs by John Johnson and formally opened on 18 March 1896 as the town hall of the Urban District, later Municipal Borough, of Leyton. Pevsner called it 'fussy but enjoyable, in an eclectic and enriched Italianate style'. Two Grade II entries stand side by side here, the town hall as NHLE 1065587 and Leyton Public Library as NHLE 1190991, both first listed on 1 August 1986. Leyton Underground station is 187 m away.
History
The Grade II listing of the town hall was made on 1 August 1986 as list entry 1065587, at grid reference TQ 38205 86297; its statutory address is High Road Leyton, west side, including blocks to Adelaide Road and Ruckholt Road, and the entry describes it as 'Town hall. Dated 1895. By John Johnson'. A two-storey technical institute block was put up alongside on Adelaide Street. The two accounts of the library building differ and neither is settled: its list entry, NHLE 1190991 at TQ 38234 86284, reads 'Public library. Dated 1881. By John Knight' and 'Forms part of Leyton Town Hall complex', while Wikipedia says the earlier town hall of 1882 by John Johnson, at High Road and Ruckholt Road, was converted into the library. The complex was extensively restored and reopened in 2010 as a business centre, and it now houses the Legacy Business Centre and Leyton Great Hall, together the Leyton Municipal Offices, managed by Lee Valley Estates; the East London Cabaret Theatre launched there in 2021.
Visit
1A Adelaide Road, Leyton, London E10 5NN
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